


In Her Blood

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Gypsies Tramps and Thieves (Song)
Genre: Family, Following Your Dreams, Gen, Goodbyes, Introspection, Pilots, Trains, Yuletide, Yuletide 2013
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-17
Updated: 2013-12-17
Packaged: 2018-01-05 00:51:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1087641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Memphis is going to fly</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Her Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Who Shot AR (akerwis)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/akerwis/gifts).



> Thank you so much to my beta, Primeideal!

Memphis squinted through her goggles as the towering spire of the Flight School drew closer and closer. She was sitting atop her family's wagon - the very last one on the Hovertrain - on the little ledge she had discovered as a child. If she jimmied the window over her bunk, and didn't mind a bit of a fall down, she could sit on the roof of the lower wagon, her back against the wall of the upper living space, and watch the landscape rush by.

All her life, Memphis and her family had traveled - 'it was just what they did,' her grandpa would say - and she had seen thousands of miles whoosh by in her sixteen years. Memphis lived with her grandparents, her Mama, and her little brother York in their wagon, but the rest of her family lived in the other wagons on the Hovertrain.

When she was young, Memphis had read a storybook about a little girl traveling to see her distant family in another city. To Memphis, the idea was confusing - why didn't her family live altogether? And why was traveling such a big deal? Memphis traveled constantly. Mama had to explain that Memphis' family wasn't like all the other families out there - some of them lived many miles from each other. Though she had dropped the subject at the time, Memphis had remained puzzled by it for many years.

To her, being surrounded by family all the time was a part of life, and she enjoyed it. There was always someone to talk to, or play with, or learn from; and in every single wagon in their Hovertrain, Memphis knew that she was loved. She should be inside now, double checking her bags and saying goodbye to Mama, but Memphis had taken one last opportunity to visit her hideyhole, to watch the town of Mobile approach.

In a few hours, they'd be pulling in, and Memphis would be going to that giant building, to enter Flight School. She'd passed all of her NavSim exams on the terminal, and now, for the first time, she was going to be leaving the Hovertrain. No one in her family had ever left like that before, though they sometimes took on passengers who came and went; Uncle Sady's wagon was for transporting goods and people as needed. Truth be told, Memphis was a little scared to go. She wasn't sure she would fit in at Flight School - she rarely fit in with the local children where the Hovertrain stopped - and she was scared to be among so many strangers. She was cheered some by the fact that her family would be back every few months, so she would see them often.

Grandpa was stopping in Mobile for two weeks this time - for repairs, he said - which was far longer than normal. Memphis knew he was sticking around so that if she didn't like Flight School she could come back home. It made her so happy, to know that her family would still be there if she needed it, but she really hoped that she could make it in Flight School on her own.

Ever since she was a little girl, Memphis had stared up at the stars from the roof, and had enjoyed the rushing feeling of pretending to steer her wagon along the tracks. Her Mama always smiled and said the sky was in her blood, but she never explained. Often, Memphis had wondered if her daddy had been a pilot. The Hovertrain traveled through Mobile a lot, and just south of town was the biggest Spaceport in the quadrant. Lots of pilots from the Spaceport and pilot students from Flight School probably hitched rides on the Hovertrains to get to the rest of the country. Memphis had never been brave enough to ask, though.

But Mama had never stopped young Memphis from dreaming about the sky. And when she was six, just a few months before her Mama became pregnant with York, they got a terminal installed in their wagon. Mama said that the rest of the family helped to get it, but she had paid the most, so it would live in their wagon. All of her cousins would come by every day for lessons, but only Memphis, and eventually York, would get to use it all the time. Mama had shown Memphis how to look up information about space, and piloting, and had even gotten her a Flight Sim program when she was a little older.

When Memphis questioned it, her Mama always smiled sadly and just said 'if your dream is to fly, my baby, you're going to fly.'

The Hovertrain slowed, almost imperceptibly, but for someone who had spent her entire life in the wagons, it vibrated through her body like a signature. Entering a metropolis, slowing to the in-city limit. Memphis rose and nimbly leapt onto the next wagon. Once they reached Mobile, they would have customers as usual, so this was her chance to say goodbye, before her family went to work.

From Grandpa's _AI and Electronics_ wagon, to Aunt Jo's _Gambling_ wagon, and then another hop onto Uncle Havers' _Entertainment_ wagon, where her Mama danced. Quickly racing over Uncle Mott's wagon, which no children were ever allowed into, Memphis crossed over Aunt Belle's _Phazeguns_ , Uncle Rory's _Drugs of all Kinds_ , Aunt Lia's _Medical Supplies_ , Aunt Ova's _Books, Etc_ , Uncle Orik's _Alcohol_ , and Uncle Sady's _Post and Passengers_ before neatly catching onto the ladder and descending into the _Kitchen_ wagon. All but the Kitchen were customer wagons, where the townsfolk would come to do business. As the saying went, 'Everything is legal on the Electrorails.'

The Kitchen was the first wagon in the train behind the engine, and it was the one where most of her cousins would be right now. Great Uncle Siri would be in the Engine room, overseeing the AI driver, even though he didn't have to, but Memphis didn't bother him. He didn't like goodbyes, and he wouldn't want to see her right now. Memphis suspected that York, who wasn't handling her leaving much better, might be hiding in there with him. If he was, their Mama would go fish him out and make him say goodbye before she left.

Memphis resisted the urge to look at the Flight School's spire one last time before ducking into the wagon. She would be there soon enough, wouldn't she? And in two years, when she graduated, she could go down south of town to the Spaceport and fly away, to the Moonbase, or the Jupiter colonies, or maybe out on an exploratory team to find new, habitable planets.

That part of the plan had always seemed like a distant dream, but now, here in Mobile, just hours away from entering Flight School, it finally seemed possible. York couldn't understand why she would ever want to leave the Hovertrains, but Mama smiled in that way that said she understood. To Memphis, the shuttles were just another kind of wagon, the space lanes just another kind of Electrorail.

Smiling at the thought, Memphis finally descended the last two steps and slipped into the kitchen wagon. Excited shouts rang out at her presence, and she was immediately mobbed by three small cousins who clung to her knees. Memphis' smile widened. Yes, she was excited to go to school, but she would miss this.


End file.
